All Around Kit: Pro Budget

One of the great things about shooting Nikon is that, if you have a little money to throw around, they produce some really excellent optics.

For Full Frame Sensors (FX)

Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8G VR II

Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8G ED

Nikon’s relatively new 24-70 f/2.8G is a very fine lens, probably better than Canon’s older model in overall resolution and certainly when it comes to field curvature. The resolution is extraordinarily high at all apertures and all focal lengths in the center, and at around f/5.6, the border image quality is quite good as well, a very typical pattern for large aperture, wide-angle zooms.

The Downsides: Chromatic aberration is somewhat high, and there is significant barrel distortion at the wide end, though both can generally be corrected in post. And of course, the lens costs about $1900.

Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 G ED VR II

This newer version of Nikon’s fast, pro-grade 70-200mm lens has corrected the problems that worried so many of us with the original version: the vignetting on a full frame sensor is well controlled, and the borders are sharper when shooting wide open. Indeed, the resolution of this lens is excellent in the center of the image regardless of aperture, and from about f/5.6 and smaller, it is very even across the entire frame. The focusing speed and build quality are excellent, as you’d expect with a lens of this caliber. Overall, this is a top-notch lens, though I prefer Canon’s.

The Downsides: Due to the internal focusing mechanism, the lens actually has significantly lower magnification when focusing close-up; when set to 200mm, the lens performs more like a 135mm at it’s minimum focusing distance; whether this will be a problem for your shooting style is up to you to determine. And as usual, Nikon’s premium lenses carry premium prices, though in this case, the price is similar to Canon’s offering.

5 Comments

I have a question. I am from Hyderabad, India. I have Nikon Fe analog camera body with 50mm, 70-210,& 28-105 lenses. Now what I want to know, if I get DSLR body will these lenses could be used or not. What is the best way of using these lenses as I have collected these lenses for a long time as I love photography(I just love to take pics, not commercial) You know why I am saying this means I have to support my hobby without any external help from anybody. Feel free to advice for which i will be obliged greatly.

Modern digital Nikons still use the same “F” lens mount as the Nikon FE, so the lenses will certainly fit onto a digital body.

Beyond that, though, it’s not clear to me how much functionality you’ll get out of them… it will depend on the specific details of the lenses. Many manual focus lenses can only be used on modern bodies with the addition of a dandelion chip/adapter without risking mechanical damage. You might want to take a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_F-mount

One major drawback of using manual focus lenses on a digital camera is that they are very hard to focus accurately. The focusing screens of AF cameras are designed to let as much light pass through as possible, and they don’t have any focus assisting mechanisms (like a split screen focuser) built in… so it’s hard to see whether your subject is truly in focus.

First let me thank you you for your sincere and mostly valuable and prompt reply to my query. I deeply appreciate your thoughtfulness. Now my mind is clear as I was attached to the equipment for a long time, hence this query.

As suggested, now I can plan and get a purely digital full set of equipment as you said that it would be perfect. So for now and for ever I’ll drop this idea of using manual lenses on the digital body.

You know I have been asking many about this and I got the answer 50, 50. Some said said it will work, and some said it won’t. Neither of them have any scientific reply like yours. Si it is suggested to every one to get into forums and shoot the question and I am sure now you’ll get the answer in a professional way like your’s.

Thanks once again Matthew and I’;; get in touch with you.

May I know your address, if God allows me to travel to your place, I would be happy to meet you.